In describing what sounds like the perfect symbiotic relationship: "The words we had were the right ones; we were easy and right with each other, as it happened, natural, full of love and trust. 'Look,' one of us would say to the other, 'here is something new, something that we have not seen together'" (154). This last sentence is especially important -- it is not only the ability to converse and share ideas with another that makes language such a defining feature of humanity and consciousness, but it is the coupling of this ability with the ability to imagine that other -- and thus oneself -- without another, in an entirely separate context, that makes language spectacular in this instance. The idea of shared experience necessarily implies the concept of solitary experiences, and it is imagination and language's ability to bridge the gap of separate self-hoods and create an awareness of self and other that makes humanity what it is.
The truly far-reaching implications of Momaday's thoughts on the creative aspect of language and imagination become clear in his book The Way to Rainy Mountain (1976). In this book, the author visits the story of the Kiowa people, the people of his own heritage if not of his language. Throughout the story of their travels, imagination and language take on highly creative roles, organizing the world into intelligible units and forces that can be manipulated only after they are understood. Language does not just allow for a sense of self, but also for an understanding of reality.
This is made especially clear in the prologue, in which Momaday reflect on the stories of the Kiowa's origin and their migration from their original homeland in this manner: "the way to Rainy Mountain is...
House Made of Dawn by N.Scott Momaday - An Extension of Central Thematic Preoccupations in Sherman Alexis' 'Indian Killer' This is a two and half page paper on two novels. 'House Made of Dawn' by N. Scott Momaday though encompasses various genre of autobiography, history, fiction, memoirs, and ethnography, this paper will strive to present an analysis of the awakening factor highlighted in the strong wordings of the author, as also
In this excerpt, her mature medicine woman attitude shows clearly that she has grown up. That doesn't mean that she isn't attracted sexually to Set, but there is a reverence now and an appreciation for his needs that perhaps readers didn't see previously. And on page 297 the desire that Set feels for Grey is a sweeter, more casual lead-in to sexual foreplay. "Their hands slipped over their bodies,
Reckoning Life has some form of development through a range of events that could be considered rites of passages for every person. These experience that individuals face during their lives is substantial different yet contains many similarities at the same time. This essay will look at two accounts of different experiences by two famous authors that tackle aspects of what it means to face different stages in one's life. Both stories
Memory, a Voyage Into History N. Scott Monday and Sherman Alexie are both story writers that focus on the environment. Storytelling is an important activity to the Native American culture that passes down information through each generation and imparts wisdom as it is retold. Although the stories told by N. Scott Monday and Sherman Alexie are 25 years apart, they share some similarities along with some differences. Every writer offers a
Black Elk utilizes his visions to create understanding of nearly all things he is later exposed to. The discussion in closing will further illuminate his utilization of vision, to ask for help for his people in a time of crisis. To discuss the vertical model of artistic communication it is difficult to narrow the filed to just one example, as Native American literature, and to a lesser degree film have
And farther west on the Great Plains were the Teton Sioux, among them the Oglalas, whose chief was Red Cloud, and among the Hunkpapas, was Sitting Bull, who together with Crazy Horse of the Oglalas, would make history in 1876 at Little Big Horn (Brown 10). After years of broken promises, conflicts and massacres, came the Treaty of Fort Laramie, said to be the most important document in the history
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